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Russian space launch heralds longer stays in orbit

Posted on: Monday, 19 April 2004, 06:00 CDT

Excerpt from report by Russia TV on 19 April

[Presenter] The ninth permanent expedition to the ISS [International Space Station] blasted off this morning from the Baykonur cosmodrome. For this international crew, headed by Russia's Gennadiy Padalka, the mission will last some six months, during which the astronauts will do more than 40 scientific experiments, test new equipment and make two spacewalks. Olga Pastukhova reports:

[Correspondent] Gennadiy Padalka, commander, is the only member of this crew who knows what awaits them in flight. Five years ago, he spent more than six months aboard the Mir space station. His confident appearance certainly helps the other crew members to calm their nerves.

For Michael Fincke, a NASA astronaut, and Dutchman Andre Kuipers, of the European Space Agency, this is their first space flight. Their experience, however, is considerable, in the form of more than four years of training. [Passage omitted]

Once their spacesuits are thoroughly checked and ascertained to be airtight, they report to the state commission.

Gennadiy Padalka and Michael Fincke will stay in orbit for six months. Andre Kuipers's flight, meanwhile, will last only 11 days, whereupon he will return to Earth on 30 April with the crew that'll leave the station at the end of their stint aboard.

It is not ruled out, in the meantime, that the next expedition to the ISS will last a whole year, rather than half a year. These plans are already under discussion.

[Yuriy Semenov, designer-general of Energiya Rocketry and Space Corporation] Our view is that manned flights, about which we'll talk later, should be trained for longer, year-long stays in orbit, which will give us the opportunity to vary arrangements for European Space Agency astronauts to join them for a while.

[Anatoliy Perminov, Federal Space Agency chief] When we talk to cosmonauts, they personally all agree with this. We'll simply have to reach agreement with the European Space Agency. And, yes, with the United States.

[Correspondent] No problems were encountered with preparations for this flight, except perhaps for a nasty surprise the weather served up. The heat wave which saw temperatures soar to 30 degrees was suddenly followed by a snow storm at the cosmodrome ahead of the launch.

[Igor Barmin, designer-general of General Machine Building Design Bureau] To tell the truth, it was quite unpleasant. It put a dampener on the proceedings, but no more than that. After all, we do winter launches, so this sort of thing happens. It does snow in the winter. [Passage omitted]

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